Encouraging Positive Body Image in Children

Children are battling the constant barrage of images, ideas and concepts of the ‘perfect’ body from the media and social media. Add to this constant comparison with their peers it can be hard for children to develop and maintain a positive body image, so how can parents help? Here are some tips to support you support your children.

Be a role model

Children learn how to act or react from those around them especially the adults. You may not think you are doing anything that may impact them but that passing remark about how thin you look in that old photo is being heard and it feeds into your child's own thoughts on their body.

Watch your words and the things you say about your body, also pay attention to the other adults that are around your children. If an aunt or uncle or friend says something negative about their body, respond by highlighting their great characteristics rather than just brushing it off.

This may be hard to do but it will help your children ten-fold and if you are struggling with your own personal body issues, fake it. After a while you will see your own thoughts shifting.

Have open communication about issues or concerns

Open communication is an important part of parenting no matter what age or what the issue is. The next time you hear your child criticise their body rather than jumping straight to the protective parent mode, be curious and ask questions as to why they think that and listen to their response. You may also want to discuss your own issues as a teen or even as an adult and explain that it happens to everyone.

Make exercising fun and build the habit

Obviously, you don’t want to make your child feel inadequate or make them feel worse about themselves by suggesting you exercise together. What you might want to do is just discuss the benefits of moving and exercising that are completely unrelated to the body like the mental health benefits.

Ask your child what they enjoy doing and then start doing that on a regular basis to build the habit. If they aren’t sure what they like to do, then try out a range of things and see what they do like.

Encourage a healthy relationship with food

This is another time you need to watch your words and how you talk about certain foods. Do you talk about how this ice cream or chocolate bar is adding to your waistline or just that you are enjoying a treat? Make sure your food messaging doesn’t link to weight or body issues, but instead reflects on the nutritional value and the enjoyment of food.

Don’t send mixed messages

Don’t just praise your child or other people based on the way they look. When you are trying to help your child have a healthy body image, offer praise around things like good deeds done, innovative ideas or good grades to show them these are things to value.

This is also true when you praise others. A passing comment on the appearance of a celebrity or sport star may seem innocuous but it sends the message that their looks and not their talents should be praised. This is the opposite message you may be working on sending to your children by praising their own skills and accomplishments and can then feed a negative self-image.

Encourage them to take a critical look at media and representation

There is an increasing representation of a variety of body shapes and sizes in the media, but it is still far from being a balanced representation of reality. Children are exposed to so many images of ‘the perfect body’ for both men and women and these representations can have a negative effect on their own body image.

Talk to your children about these images and explain to them that they have been altered in ways to make them look their best. Help them build a more critical mindset when it comes to these images that they see frequently.